HB 5744: ‘open and obvious’ would be comparative negligence issue only

The Michigan House Judiciary Committee will take up the slippery issue of the open-and-obvious doctrine with a Wednesday hearing on HB 5744.
The bill would amend MCL 600.2959 to make the open and obvious doctrine an element an issue of comparative fault only.
Under the open and obvious doctrine, in its current case-law formulation, premises liability ...

If our legislature has the time to deal with the decriminalization of duelling (which it did in the past year), it has time to deal with this issue.

However, as it can’t seem to legislatively fix a problem in a statutory cause of action like the serious impairment issue in the No-Fault Act, I am not hopeful that it will fix a Common Law cause of action by legislatively addressing the judicially created open and obvious “doctrine”.

I am a victim of the “open and obvious” law and feel it is of the utmost urgency that this law be changed. I have suffered a severe debilitating injury due to the negligence of a shop keeper as well as lifelong medical issues as a result of a fall. To be told I have no recourse not only makes me very angry, it also makes me feel as though my quality of life doesn’t matter to anyone but myself. I moved to Michigan several years ago from another state and at this point in time, I feel like Michigan is not my “home” because I don’t feel safe or protected here. With the “open and obvious” law we are on our own, with no defense, if we are injured while doing something as innocent as shopping.

Until you personally, or a loved one is injured at a business, or in it’s parking lot, your opinion has no validity, other than it being your opinion. When you break a leg, or need 2 rotator cuff surgeries, due to not being able to see a pothole sticking out from under your car door when you got out, and you feel that it was no one’s fault but your own; that if you had been a “reasonably intelligent person” and bent over enough to see the pothole after opening your car door “just in case a hole was there”, THEN one could respect your opinion, because “you know whereby you speak.” It is obvious you have not been in this position, or you wouldn’t think that it is such a “waste” of our courts’ time! You would realize that this law is so asinine that it has created a mindset for business owners that they do not have to make their premises safe anymore, and in fact, that the bigger and more hazardous the defect, the better!! It becomes even more “open and obvious!” Be careful, and always look down, watching where you walk at all times!!!!!!